India: Attention headed for geothermal energy

Infuse Ventures has announced an undisclosed amount of investment in geothermal cooling leader Green India Building Systems and Services (GIBSS) Pvt ltd. Intellecap was the investment advisor for GIBSS for this investment.

Founded by the Geothermal air conditioning specialists duo, Mandar Kaprekar and Arun Shenoy, GIBSS provides energy efficient and environmentally responsible technologies that help reduce operating costs in buildings by up to 70% to facilitate net zero energy buildings in India.

“Geothermal air-conditioning is a proven concept globally and largely used for heating in the western countries. However, geothermal is largely untapped in cooling dominated tropical countries such as India and it presents enormous potential with significant changes in design approach on the cooling side”, says Mandar, who is one among the six IGSHPA (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association) accredited professionals in South East Asia. “Commercial and Industrial buildings use an air-cooled or water-cooled system to pump out heat from inside the building into the atmosphere. With our geothermal design, operating costs of an air conditioning system can reduce by up to 70%, making geothermal one of the best prospects for operating cost-saving in any building. With a payback potential under two years and economic life of over 30 years, life cycle savings of geothermal cooling can be extremely appealing to an end-user ”, Mandar added.

Arun Shenoy, co-founder and an alumnus of Oklahoma state university which houses IGSHPA, the apex global research body for geothermal air conditioning says, “Our proprietary design tool that has a comprehensive database of ground thermal and hydro geological properties for most Indian cities, which enables us to quickly create customized geothermal offerings for our customers. We have developed multiple design strategies that can be adopted based on different combinations of design parameters at a given location. With the induction of a draft national geothermal policy by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India) a few weeks back, we see a huge potential for the technology in India in the months to come.” Arun continued, “We are delighted to join hands with Infuse Ventures in our journey forward and immensely value the sectoral depth and networks that they bring to the venture.”

“GIBSS is a pioneer of geothermal cooling in India and is helping unleash its potential. Within a short span, the team has been able to build the necessary tools and expertise to make geothermal cooling a reality in India”, says Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures. “While solar and wind have received enormous attention in the past, geothermal’s potential remains untapped. GIBSS is all set to change that and we look forward to being the catalyst of this change”, he added.

GIBSS had earlier raised an angel round from SRI capital and Hyderabad Angels. As a part of the investment, Kunal will join the board of the Company. “Intellecap has been advising GIBSS since their first angel round and is pleased to have continued the relationship. We saw enormous synergies between GIBSS work and Infuse’s focus on the cleantech sector and look forward to GIBSS changing how people cool large spaces”, said Gagandeep Bakshi, Associate Director and Head Investment Banking at Intellecap.